Georgia Straight
for April 1994, Article 3

Many long years ago there was a baseball manager named Casey Stengel whose lasting fame was leading the Yankees to umpty dump World Series Championships in the 40s and 50s.

Old Case was a character, and in his dotage he decided to manage the then expansion New York Mets. They were as bad a group of so-called major league players who ever hit into a double play - which they didn't do very often because they seldom had a man on base. They were, in a word, awful.

One day as Casey watched as his bumblers dropped popups, overran bases, and let routine ground balls skip through their legs he was heard to mumble "can't anyone here play this game?"

It's a mercy that Casey, now in the great diamond in the sky, can't see the B.C. Legislature in action, especially her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Last week I wrote of the matter of the then Speaker of the House, Joan Sawicki, and how the Premier showed his utter contempt for parliamentary tradition. Serious though that was, worse was yet to come.

Parliamentary tradition is clear that if a minister is in a compromising situation he (I use the masculine for convenience) must resign until that cloud has lifted. It is not a matter of guilt or innocence at all. Put simply, if a minister is under any serious question of impropriety or wrongdoing, he must resign until that cloud is lifted.

It's helpful, I think, to look at two recent cases both of which involve both an Attorney General and the movable morals of the NDP.

It is June 1990 - Mike Harcourt and Moe Sihota are in opposition and Bud Smith is Attorney-General. Sihota releases tapes of tapped private phone calls by Mr Smith to a deputy which show two things - Smith was uncomplimentary about a lawyer acting against a Socred Minister and he talked about how to deal with him from a political perspective. There was also a great deal of salacious chit chat unnecessarily released by Mr Sihota, to the considerable embarrassment of others, but that had nothing to do with Mr Smith as Attorney General. Bud Smith took his counsel on the Thursday afternoon this matter became public and the following morning stood aside as Attorney-General. He was later cleared of all wrongdoing.

On that fateful Friday in June, which must have been horrible for him and his family, Mr Smith knew that it was not a matter of innocence or guilt but whether or not he could continue as Attorney-General under that cloud. He did the proper thing. Promptly and without a whimper.

Colin Gabelman, the NDP Attorney-General, is a man liked by all. Like the rest of his party, however, he regards any who disagree with his pro abortion stance as a kook. One of Mr Gabelmann's "kooks", a very dedicated and intelligent man named Gordon Watson, started a law suit over the abortion issue and subpoenaed him to appear as a witness. Mr Gabelmann didn't want to appear and filed an affidavit in support of an application before a judge. This affidavit became sworn court testimony and some months later Mr Watson discovered that the affidavit contained a clear untruth. He took that knowledge to the Liberal Justice Critic, Jeremy Dalton, who some say warned Mr Gabelmann. In all events, Mr Gabelmann on April 13 made a complete breast of it in the House. He had indeed sworn a false affidavit.

Mr Dalton, faced with an Attorney-General caught in apparent perjury, did nothing! Not a question from the official Opposition to Mr Gabelmann or the Premier. It was left to Gordon Wilson to try, in the couple of minutes left in Question Period, to mount an attack.

The next day everyone naturally assumed that Opposition leader Gordon Campbell would get the Liberal assault going, but no! it was gentle Jeremy back on his feet helping his friend the Attorney-General divert attention from his affidavit with questions about a prison break. Gadfrey Daniel! here we had an Attorney-General, on the face of it at least committing perjury, and in two days the Liberal Opposition hadn't asked him a single question!

By Friday (three days later), following, as usual, my editorials on radio, the Sun and Province cried out for Gabelmann to step down whereupon Gordon Campbell finally joined the chorus with a press release demanding the same.

There are three compelling conclusions.

For Premier Harcourt, there are different - very different - rules of conduct for Socreds than for the NDP.

The Liberals are the worst Opposition of all time.

And old Casey was right - nobody here can play this game.